Southeast loses double-overtime heartbreaker to Cloverleaf

In a few minutes Saturday afternoon, Southeast went from an exhilarating game-tying layup to a heartbreaking loss, with Cloverleaf winning 59-51 to improve to 10-0.

That’s the best start in school history, per Colts coach John Carmigiano.

Trailing 45-42 with 38.3 seconds remaining in the first overtime, the Pirates (5-7) struggled to find a shot. Finally, junior guard Leann James wound her way through the defense, earning a trip to the free throw line with 9.1 seconds until the buzzer.

James made one of two — which turned out to be just enough — as Southeast got the ball back with a ferocious press. The Pirates pried the ball loose under the basket and three Southeast players leapt on the ball, forcing a jump and regaining possession.

With 3.4 seconds to play with, the Pirates fed Andrea Radcliff under the basket, with the junior forward getting prime position and skying her layup off the glass to force a second overtime.

The home crowd was ecstatic. Southeast coach Jenny Gamertsfelder pumped her fist with gusto. The Pirates hopped up and down heading into the ensuing break.

"I knew if we could get the ball to (Radcliff) there on the post, she would be able to make something happen for us," Gamertsfelder said. "She wants to make things happen, so I just try to draw up a simple play, nothing fancy, something we had worked on, and it happened to be there."

Within minutes, the mood shifted for the host Pirates.

Cloverleaf won the tip and slowly dribbled near the timeline, just as it had when holding a fourth-quarter lead. Southeast pressed, nearly trapping Helaina Limas by the sideline, but absorbed a foul call instead. A technical on the Pirates followed. Then came a five-point swing in favor of the Colts.

Limas drained three of four free throws — one from the bonus and two from the technical — to go up 48-45, then after the Southeast inbound, Limas rode a screen and drove strong with her left hand for the five-point advantage. Down five, the Pirates took a quick shot, and the Colts sped down the court with Lisa Wangler hitting a layup to take a 52-45 advantage.

The way Cloverleaf played defense throughout the afternoon, there was no coming back from seven down.

"That was a marathon of a basketball game," Gamertsfelder said. "I felt like I was in some kind of crazy time warp. It just kept going and going and going. I got to give credit to my girls for (continuing) to fight the whole time and trusting me and listening to the game plan."

The Colts won largely because of their defense, which forced 19 turnovers, six in the fourth quarter.

"They don't let up on defense," Gamertsfelder said. "Some of the (turnovers) might be (our) girls were getting tired. Any person playing sports is going to get tired. The first thing that starts to go is your mental — oh, I didn't ball fake there and now it's a pass that's picked off."

The Colts also won because of their strength on the glass, with 15 rebounds from Wangler and 13 from Mckenna Jordan.

"We score a lot in transition and we don't necessarily need the 3-pointer to win and we realize that," Carmigiano said. "If we bring good defensive intensity, we're going to get easy looks for our guards in transition, and also when you have two posts as strong as we (have), we're just going to let them do their work."

The Colts also won because of an impressive swing from Limas, as remarkable as the turn of emotions on the home sideline.

Limas scored several buckets in transition in the second stanza, but was struggling from deep until the fourth quarter, missing her first four 3-pointers, some badly.

"Her 3-point attempts just come by feel," Carmigiano said. "Most of the time, she's going to drive the ball to the basket, but if you give her time and her feet are set, she's going to deliver."

With Southeast leading 37-32 with under five minutes to play in regulation, Limas struck from the corner. It was one of the biggest plays of the game. Cloverleaf followed with a steal, and Limas was fouled on the break, making both free throws to knot the score at 37.

The final 4:24 of regulation was as low-scoring as it gets. With 2:35 to play, James finished an underhanded layup against contact for a two-point edge. Cloverleaf’s Jordan followed with a superb runner to knot the score at 39.

The Colts held the ball for the final 1:55, patiently passing the ball, at times dribbling calmly by the timeline. Players glanced at the clock. If there were a copy of the Record-Courier available, they could have snuck a peek at the sports section. Limas nearly won it in regulation with a buzzer-beater from the baseline, but the ball glanced off the rim.

Still, Limas was ready to roll. She began the first overtime with a trey to put Cloverleaf up three. That lead held throughout the entire extra period — until Radcliff's game-tying layup at the buzzer.

Limas scored the first five of the second overtime as well, leading all scorers with 29 points.

Southeast got a big performance from its freshmen.

Rachel Neer led the Pirates with 14. It was her drive with five minutes remaining in regulation that gave Southeast a five-point lead.

"Her confidence is snowballing," Gamertsfelder said. "She's become more prevalent in every game this year. It started in the Mogadore game, and it has been rolling ever since. She has really become somebody that can shoot the outside shot, but also give you a nice ball fake and drive to the hole."

Fellow freshman Emma Keto drained a pair of 3-pointers in the first half and finished with eight points. She also had the inbound pass to Radcliff for the game-tying bucket.

"She's smart, aggressive," Gamertsfelder said. "When she is set for the three, it's going to go in."

Radcliff, after forcing double overtime, scored four more buckets in the second overtime period to finish with 11 points, to go with her nine rebounds.

The Pirates crashed the boards as a team, with six players recording at least three rebounds. They scored as a team, too, with six players finishing with five-plus points and four scoring eight-plus.

But Southeast, playing one of the hardest non-conference slates of any team in Portage County, fell just short.

Boasting a 4-1 mark in the PTC County, the Pirates fell to 1-6 out of conference.

"That's the closest game Cloverleaf has been in all year," Gamertsfelder said. "(Their coach and I) both said the same thing to each other, 'Thank you.' We both know, we can see, (in) the long run that it's going to help both of us so much."

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